Masculinity in Video Games: Justice Summit 2018-2019

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Video Games. A form of media that is consumed by a large majority of Bellarmine students. As our Justice Summit comes to a close this year, Mr. Cozort recently gave a presentation on the ideas and influences of masculinity and its role on a variety of popular video games. Mr. Cozort said that a presentation on masculinity during our Justice Summit has “more potential traction in the near future” where Bellarmine students and young men can identify and explore the implications of these gender roles. The exploration into different meanings of masculinity in the near future can lead to possible questions being answered including “what is the true role of a man in our community?”

Mr. Cozort said that the session itself focused on “how men and women portrayed in video games” as well as its possible implications on the systematized gender roles that we have in our community through that portrayal. Mr. Cozort offers his presentation as a future self-reflection about the persona that we all aim to portray as Bellarmine students and graduates.

In the Summit presentation, Mr. Cozort pointed out that most of the characters in video games that are defeated are often men which brings to the light an idea called the “disposable male.” Essentially, society tells us that men are expendable and that video games help, in his words, “perpetuate that idea.” The concept of a disposable male permeates far beyond video games and has possible effects on the moral ideology surrounding masculinity and gender roles. The idea is to increase the number of different emotions displayed by the male psyche in role-playing games such as different emotions of happiness, sadness, and concern. As we head into 2019, we should analyze and identify the portrayal of men and women at all different levels of society, even in video games, a media consumed by a large percentage of Bellarmine students and by the world.

Mr. Cozort encourages students to keep this in mind the next time they pick up their favorite game.